What matters to us cats is how pliable a human is, and how easy they are to lead. And the problem with dog people is that they want to be the leaders in a human-animal relationship. Even those who consider their dogs as true “best friends” want that friend to follow their lead. They consider themselves wise, benevolent masters when it comes to their dogs. As you know, this attitude does not fly with us cats.

Cat humans typically aren’t as interested in being in charge. Which is great because it leaves the field wide open for us kitties. And cat-humans-in-training who try to assert their dominance get schooled pretty quickly. Cat humans come to find joy in being our servants and thinking of new ways to delight us and make us happy. Cat humans know that they can never lead us, and only the most clueless among them will believe they are equal to us. Most humans who love cats acknowledge early on that we are superior beings who have lessons to teach.

Cat humans are trainable. Dog humans want to do the training. Cat humans follow our lead. Dog humans want to do the leading.

Which brings me to the humans here. It’s quite curious. My human, the cat lover, in every other aspect of her life is fiercely ambitious and always wants to be in charge. She follows no one. (Frankly, this has made her rather hard to train. She is very willful.) And just as odd is her boyfriend, the dog human, who never, ever wants to lead or be in charge of anything. (Which I think has confused the dog here sometimes, since she too has no desire to lead or be in charge!)

So you kitties out there, tell me what you think: do I just live with a pair of nonconformists, or is this kind of behavioral split more typical than I originally suspected?

Well I have to say, that is the best post I have seen about dogs vs cats. That is such a good comparison. We have both cats and a dog here and the dog just begs to be directed. She wants my company where the cats just want us to do what they want to do. I really think that dogs love to be trained while the cats just love to train us. Anyway, great post for sure. Take care.

Cats’ humans are quite independent and don’t need exercising on a lead – of course the dogs’ humans must be very shy as the dogs have to take them out to exercise and meet fellow humans to discuss the weather which is their only topic of conversation (also their humans have to be kept on a lead at all time so they don’t run off to fetch the morning newspaper and make it all soggy).
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx.

Loved Hannah and Lucy’s comment too. For me, I find my human very pliable but she is only that way with me. I have heard her being obstinate and willful to fellow humans on occasion. For me and other kitties she is a pushover. She softens considerably for dogs too as she used to have several. But humans..well…obstinate is the word.

Hmmmmm….tapping one claw…up, down, up, down…very thought provoking (VBP) Sparkle. Ya see, Mom and Dadhad Siberian Huskies, 3 of them, and they had kitties too…but those Sibes eventually did train Mom cuz she was all into this dog show stuff, and they finally taught her to chill, cut it out, and she did…and they trained her to walk fast on a lead and to play on command….so, maybe my bipeds are different cuz they had Sibes and they are very catlike…oh yeah, and both bipeds always wanna be in charge of each other… Very humorous

Very interesting! Our daddy is more like the dog person traits but our mommy is most definitely the cat person although she has to work really hard at being creative sometimes. It is very interesting how your human and her boyfriend are so different but it certainly works. Isn’t her boyfriend both a cat and dog person since he likes Binga?

I wonder Sparkle, is this not the perfect situation for you? Both of your humans and the dog are willing to be lead, you are a natural leader. You don’t mention how the humans deal with one another so we assume they get along. I think that good. I know some humans need to be in a one human only households. I think we’d all be interested in how you cope with training two humans at once. You might want to microchip or put tags on them in case they get loose. Most state issue licenses for humans. That way you can be sure to get them back if the get lost. You want to be able to retrieve them from the shelter as soon as you can. They can learn distructive habits or behavior while at a state or county shelter.

Humans are individuals – you can’t really categorize them so easily…I treat cats and dogs and even humans the same…”You know what you are supposed to do, just do it” but I also tend to spoil just about anyone who comes across my path regardless of how many legs they have!

no no and no again. cat humans is the ones wif enuff dignity to refuse to pick up dog poop. simple as that. how on earths, i wonder, how did teh goggies ever convince humans to do that for them? ugh. or throw sticks or put up wif face licking? yuck. but all dis begs another question: how did cat-humans get so proud as to refuse to clean up after teh slobberfest monsters? did they learns it from close contact wif kittehs? or was they born with this kind of cat-like superiority? hmmmmmm…makes you fink doesn’t it? a real kitten and the egg kind of mystery, I guess…we may neva know.
also, i fink your human’s boyfriend is really a cat person. he jes unwilling to accept teh truff. i fink they call that being in teh closet. go let him out.

Hmmm, Rumblemum sounds like how Sparklemum is, and I’ve managed to train her quickly and well. I think you must have the household under your paw as well. Why don’t we look at it as we are brilliant pussycats, able to train even the most difficult humans?

I think you have hit the nail on the head, Sparkle — several times! Frankly, though, I think dog humans are less open emotionally. They obviously prefer more structure and prefer things that have rules.

However, an untrained dog can be a real menace, whereas an untrained cat is — well, just a cat!

The real menaces are the dog humans who don’t train their dog, and then others have to suffer because of its bad behaviour. Dogs, left to their own devices, will behave badly — just like most men.

Cats, on the other paw, only behave like cats no matter what! Ya gotta love ‘em!

Oh Oh! Our house has 2 cats and 2 dogs! Mommy and Daddy both growed up with both and they is now sitting on either side of 60! Me can’t see them as being one or the other!
This is just so confusing…
Kisses
nellie

Sparkle, our human taught us to do dog tricks like sit, stay, lie down, roll over, jump, etc. (We just humored her because the treats were awesome!). But even she said that she could not teach us cat tricks because cat tricks are what we cats make humans perform. She recognizes our independent nature and admires us for it–no needy slobberfest for her!

Don’t care for dogs AT ALL (to clean it up and put it mildly) and yes, I’ve had to care for two, so I have had the experience. For me, it’s cats all the way! Cats are smarter (they don’t just do things by rote; they decide what they want to do, and whether or not they want to be “trained”), cleaner (by miles!), quieter (not a lot of instances of neighbors complaining about cats meowing incessantly!), and IMHO, the better species in every way. As for the generalizations and stereotypes, *pfffft* on ‘em!